My gaze is locked onto the impotent spell focus Zeus holds in his hand. "I will not ask again. Where did you get that?"
"Some old man from another dimension gave it to me. He gave it to me as proof of what you’ve done. You’re a very terrible person, aren’t you? You condemn us for our crimes, yet it seems you’ve committed the most heinous actions out of all of us. Hypocrite." He smiles. The reappearance of the Nefarium focus, however, gives me an idea. I begin spreading my flux around myself and the gods is a sphere.
"It is of no importance. Let us continue." Athena and Hercules leap at me once again. Hera continues to cast bolts of magic at me, only this time they actually hit my runic shielding due to me spreading my flux around us. My primal cutter clashes against Athena’s aegis, and Hercules tries to wrestle me to the ground. I push both off of me, but Hercules bounces back and subdues me. Even with my taint body and extremely enhanced strength, I am no match for him. Zeus walks up to me with a smug look on his face.
"You are a fool, mortal. Your magic barrier is indeed powerful, but I will break through it with time." He raises his hand and begins to send lightning at me. It hits my runic shielding, which holds fast. When he sees his lightning has no effect, he enlists Hera to also cast magic at me and Athena to begin striking me repeatedly. My runic shielding begins to crack, albeit slowly. Just a little more…
After ten minutes of attacking, my runic shielding is on the verge of breaking. My thaumic fortress armor has resistance, but that lightning will still damage me. He will kill me if I don’t act immediately. Hercules smiles when he sees my defenses failing. "Not so tough now, huh?" He gloats.
"Well, mortal, it seems your little crusade has come to an end." Says Zeus.
"I disagree. You see, I have come to gain a greater understanding of magic over time. When you showed me the Nefarium spell focus, I realized that it wasn’t at full power due to my casting it once already. However, I don’t need it at full power. Over the course of this fight I’ve constructed an anti-magic barrier around us, which means no civilians will die if it were to be cast now; the combustion will be contained. Which means…" I flick my wrist and a spark of vis springs out of it and hits the spell focus in Zeus’s hand. His eyes go wide and he screams and tries to throw it away, but he is too late.
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The spherical area inside the flux barrier I made explodes into hellish purple fire. The screams of the gods pierce my ears as I see their very souls being torn asunder. This time, I am also subject to the spell, as I have been channeling my flux into the barrier and not keeping it around myself. I feel immense pain, greater than even the pain I felt when my soul was cracked into seven pieces, and I scream. I scream for what feels like months on end. Eventually, however, the pain subsides. Since my body cannot conduct vis, no real harm should have come to me. The pain I felt was merely the vis around me erupting. As the purple fire and smoke clears, I see a great pile of dust in front of me, along with a great collection of noble souls. I am quick to capture them in warded jars.
As I look at the aftermath, I see the civilians are no longer bowing. Instead, they have the spark of terror in their eyes. Most flee, but a few bow to me. This angers me. "Get up, fools. I am no god. There is only one God worth worshiping. See to it that you find yourself in his favor." As I realize my work in this dimension is finished, I open a flux rift back to the Emptiness and age through.
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When I arrive at the tower, a great celebration is held for my success. I find my companions sitting and talking with some of the recruits. However, most of them appear furious. Jack attempts to grab me, but my runic shielding blocks his hands. Angrily, he shouts, "Is it true you killed an entire dimension?" I look at Julius.
"We were talking and it just came up," she says.
"I cannot lie to you. It is true. But in that moment, the moment I cast that spell, I was not in control. The warp had my mind."
"Did it have your mind when you made the spell?" He asks.
"…No, but think about it. What would we have done in a dimension full of entirely gods? Or a dimension where everything was a rabid creature capable of destroying us in moments? I had to have a contingency."
"This… I need some time to think. I can’t believe this is true." He says. He leaves to go to his room. Everyone else, however, stays, and we have a wonderful time chatting. I have not been happier or more hopeful since I first arrived here.
After the party, I resume my thaumaturgical research. I make further enhancements to Julius’s strength and durability. I also am able to infuse Ican’s body with Praecantatio (Magic) Essentia, which should allow him to cast magic even without a noble soul, only at a much lesser degree. It should be enough to restore his previous powers, however. I also inscribe his hide with various sigils, which will give him his own natural runic shielding. It’s not as powerful as mine, however, as it draws directly from his own life force to protect him, mainly so it works even if we’re in a dimension where some oddity prevents him from using vis spells.